| |
| |
|
Small Business Information |
|
|
|
13 Steps to Protect Yourself from Your Bank
The success of your business is critically dependent on how well you negotiate and manage your financial partners. Banks, investors, credit cards and financial services companies work for you. Therefore, you need to be sure you are working together, understand the plans of each and have the best idea of what and how things will happen when times get tough. It is very simply like dating, and you need to be acutely aware of how words, actions and contracts meld together to form a base for your business structure to build on. 1. Ask for resume of your loan officer and if a small community bank the resume(s) or work history of the principals. Banks have one of the fastest turn over rates and as the industry continues to consolidate, so people are moving fast. It's not always the bad ones that move on, there are actually good folks that get snapped up by the private sector. Know how often they move, and where to and where from. And, ultimately, if you can go with, assuming the relationship is good. 2. Ask to meet 2 to 3 levels up. Loan officer's boss, senior vice president of commercial lending and again, in small community banks, a principal. If your bank contact shows up missing, you have a critical issue that you most likely don't have the time to deal with now. 3. Ask for references of businesses within you range loan, and/or business type. If they won't give you the other companies' name, ask them to have their clients call you. Make sure they are similar in size, industry and financial requirements. Be prepared to ask tough and pointed questions to uncover the real types of people you are dealing with to determine what it will be like beyond the honeymoon stage. 4. Ask for their standings in state and federal regulator groups including FDIC. Be aware that in many cases it is against regulations for bank employees to tell you they are in trouble. Get the history and then follow up on the FDIC website and state banking authorities. These groups may ultimately decide what the bank can and can't do with account. 5. Ask what happens when times get tough. Blow up the bomb, talk about the worst case scenarios and get the reaction of how your bank will handle a takeover, regulatory change, or a late payment. 6. Request the financial intuitions' long term plans. Sell. Merger. Growth. The bank wants to know your long term plans and how they can be part of it. Shouldn't you know what they are planning on doing? If they are going to buy up other banks, or be bought? What happens to your great (or mediocre) bank relationship? Ask often and frequently where the banks see themselves going in the community and within their industry. 7. Draw up a close-out plan if you want to direct the process. If you hold special permits or plan to be involved with your company to the bitter end, figure out how that will be handled. Discuss and get agreements with your financial partners. 8. Invite Board of Directors to your business. Not only are they powerful allies with your bank they are often influential in the community. The more you develop the relationship, they more they can be aware and helpful in moving your business forward, in and outside the bank. 9. Sign any amendments to loan security agreements at the same time you enter into a loan relationship. Neither should be determined to be of more importance if you are going to create an equal and balance long term relationship. Nothing should be an additional or an oversight but one complete and equally negotiated agreement. 10. Request quarterly reports on changes within the bank. Read them and ask questions about what they mean to you and your business relationship. 11. Demand annual updates on areas that blend your business and your business services. Are they adding services to benefit you or cutting areas that will be vital to the growth, profitability and success of your business. 12. Recap all meetings and phone conversations in writing and copy supervisors in your company and at the bank. When times are good, you want every one to know it. And when you need help or relationship begin to gradually, or like a sudden summer storm, explode, you want your communication and your plans to be exacting, detailed and with a concise trail. 13. Continue to meet with other institutions and don't consolidate your business. Margaret E. J. Broderick has an undergraduate in communications and an MBA in Strategic Marketing and Management. Her last company was a two-time Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist. She is the author of Passion v. Arrogance: A Dana and Goliath Story of Wine Women & Wine, and continues to tour the country to educate audiences. She can be reached at http://www.passionpowerpress.com, or passionbooks@aol.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Small-Business - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Virtual Assistance for Healthcare Professionals Administrative and clerical tasks are the bane of every industry. No matter how small or large your business is, you will eventually find yourself with stacks of paperwork that need your attention and phone calls that need to be made. Are You Making These Mistakes In Your Business? You've probably heard the statistic that 95% of small businesses fail in the first five years. That's not a very encouraging number! Although being part of the 5% that succeed is not easy, it's definitely possible. How To Start A Blind Cleaning Business Quickly And Easily Starting the blind cleaning business is one of the best marketable business ideas you could latch on to. If you give the requisite amount of time and dedication, there will be no cap on your earnings. Do You Love Food? - Then Maybe Opening a Restaurant is Not Such a Crazy Idea The restaurant industry in the United States employs an estimated 12.2 million people, making it the nation's largest employer outside of government agencies. Creating Time the Virtual Way Time. As a small business owner, it's the commodity you covet most but never seem to have enough of. Franchise Territories are Generally Delineated On a Map; Why? If you own a mobile service or home based franchise your exclusive territory will be delineated on a map in the attachment of your franchise agreement. You will be assigned generally a single city, county or region and another franchisee or team member of the same system will not compete with your although may be right around the corner. Why Small Business Must Turn to PR If small business had no important outside audiences, it wouldn't exist.But since they do have external "publics," it's doubly unfortunate when those same small business owners seem unconcerned about the very outside folks whose behaviors can place a choke-hold on their business!And worse, are so casual about public relations, the best way to move those behaviors in their direction. Patient Records - Your Responsibilities As a practise gets larger & larger the associated problems that you inherit increase with that growth. The Practise Manager finds it increasingly difficult to tend to his duties and look after the administration of the Practise. Effectively Completing the Operations Plan Section of Your Business Plan The Operations Plan is a critical component of any business plan as it presents the Company's action plan for executing its vision. The Operations Plan must detail 1) the processes that are performed to serve customers every day (short-term processes) and 2) the overall business milestones that the company must attain to be successful (long-term processes). Drivng Home the Point - An Outsourcing Story in China A few years ago, I visited Beijing for the first time. At Beijing airport, I got into a taxi and paid 450 yuan (about US$54) to get to the city. How to Become Successful in the Field of Financial Consultants Financial Consultants are one of the fastest growing industries today. More and more people are requiring the services of a finance consultant to get out of debt, and/or prepare for educational and retirement expenses. Pressure Washing Graders and Tractor Motors When pressure washing heavy equipment each piece of equipment has a slightly different procedure to ensure efficiency. When a pressure washing company is bidding such jobs by the piece of equipment instead of the hour, they must be cognizant of this so they can maximize profits. Contract Cleaners - A Guide for Business Part 2 In the first part of this article I put forward 7 questions that I believed were important to ask of your potential cleaning company. In this article I will explain the relevance of the first two questions and the answers you get to you as a business. Should I Franchise or Not? A reader of one of my online sessions asked should he franchise his business or not. He had set up a service business and was getting ready to expand and wanted to know if franchising was a good potential strategy for this. Franchising Industry Burdened in Over Regulation There were only an estimated 1800 active franchisors in this country at the end of 2002, that number down from 6000 in a single decade. It is not hard from this effort to increase regulations to see why. Is It Recess Yet?! Confessions of a Self Employed Workaholic I have a confession to make. My name is Caroline and I'm a workaholic. Yeah, It IS Lonely At the Top Sometimes when you run a business you feel as lonely as the Maytag repairman. Loneliness and isolation are very common problems for business owners. Everything I Need to Know About Business I Learned From My Nametag So there I was - sitting in the audience of an on-campus seminar. Surrounding me sat hundreds of fellow students; each of us wearing one of those little, handwritten, adhesive nametags. Pressure Washing Market Niche Those who are in the pressure washer business should not neglect the Hotel exterior cleaning niche. Many five-star hotels spend significant dollars in making sure that their grounds are meticulously cleaned. How to Make Your Business Image Stand Out Above The Crowd Traditional advertising methods are still being used for almost 90% of businesses today. The number one problem with this, is that all everyone else seems to be following the same old methods.
|
| Good Credit Loans | home | site map | School Bus Clothing | Florida Pool Heating |
| © 2006 |
